POLAND 



administrative divisions, govern- 

 ments in Russian Poland, pro- 

 vinces in German Poland, and 

 small counties in Galicia, 



Tho constitution of April 8, 1921, 

 is based upon a franchise exer- 

 cised by all adults except soldiers 

 and government officials. The 

 president is elected by the national 

 assembly for seven years ; any 

 Polish citizen 41 years of age is 

 eligible. He exercises treaty- 

 making power, is supreme military 

 commander, except in time of war, 

 and convenes, opens, prorogues, and 

 closes the Sejm or parliament. He 

 is assisted in his executive func- 

 tions by a council of ministers. The 

 Sejm comprises a senate or upper 

 house and a diet or lower house, 

 both elective. Seventy electoral 

 districts return 524 members to 

 the diet. Local government is in 

 process of unification. 



B. C. Wallis 



HISTORY. The Poles, a people 

 of Slavonic race, gave their name to 

 a country that came into existence 

 as a distinct state about 1000, 

 although the people themselves 

 had probably had their homes in 

 the district for some time before 

 then. The region was regarded as 

 part of the Holy Roman Empire 

 restored by Otto the Great in 960, 

 but the Poles had rulers of their 

 own, and in A.D. 1000 one of these, 

 Boleslaus, called himself king of 

 the Poles. 



This kingdom of Boleslaus was 

 soon extended in every direction, 

 for the king was a man of war 

 and successful therein, but it fell 

 almost to pieces after his death. 

 Like other states of that time, its 

 boundaries were rather indefinite, 

 but for nearly 300 years they 

 seem to have contracted until, 

 about 1300, but little of Poland 

 was left to the several princes who 

 divided the land between them. 

 The Tartars ravaged it, and as a 

 counterpoise the Teutonic Order 

 was invited to send settlers into 

 the country, while many Germans 

 also made their homes there. 



A new era began with the reign 

 of Ladislas, called the Dwarf. He 

 was only duke of what was known 

 as Great Poland, and reigned 

 early in the 14th century. To his 

 own Great Poland he added Little 

 Poland, and made the country 

 again formidable, especially after 

 1322, when he defeated in battle the 

 formidable chivalry of the Teutonic 

 Order. To mark his heightened 

 position he took the title of king. 



Casimir, called the Great, the 

 son and successor of Ladislas, 

 had a fairly peaceful reign, and as 

 it was also a long one, he was able 

 to bring about many desirable re- 

 forms. The result was a greater 



amount of security, and with it a 

 greater volume of trade and pros- 

 perity. The country was made 

 larger, too, by his acquisitions of 

 territory, but Great Poland, the 

 district around the Vistula between 

 Warsaw and Thorn, remained its 

 heart. In 1320, however, Cracow, 

 in Little Poland, was made the 

 capital ; about two centuries later 

 Warsaw took its place. 



When Casimir died his suc- 

 cessor was his nephew Louis, king 

 of Hungary, but his reign was 

 short (1370-1382), and on his 

 death there was trouble over the 

 succession. He left only an infant 

 daughter, who later, was married 

 to Jagiello, grand duke of Lithu- 

 ania. He was crowned king of 

 Poland as Ladislas II, and from 

 this union sprang the family of 

 Jagellon that ruled until 1572. 



The union of Poland and Lithu- 

 ania did not last long, as in 1401 

 Jagiello gave up the grand duchy 

 to his brother. The two rulers, 

 however, made a pact to act to- 

 gether against joint enemies, the 

 most formidable of whom were 

 the Teutonic knights ruling the 

 district that separated the two 

 countries from the Baltic. Their 

 troops then fought together at Tan- 

 nenberg, July, 1410, the battle 

 that more than any other de- 

 stroyed the power and prestige of 

 the order. Ladislas died in 1434, 

 and, after his eldest son Ladislas 

 III had reigned for ten years, 

 his second son Casimir came to the 

 throne. 



Poland and Lithuania 



Casimir was already grand duke 

 of Lithuania, and once more the 

 two countries came under the same 

 sovereign. This, however, cannot 

 be regarded as a real addition of 

 territory to Poland, as was the re- 

 sult of the final struggle against the 

 Teutonic Order. In 1454 some of 

 the people in the lands ruled by 

 the knights, being discontented, 

 asked the Polish king to be their 

 lord and master, their protector, as 

 the political ideas of the age re- 

 garded it. He accepted the invita- 

 tion, and with it went obviously 

 the hostility of the knights. A 

 long and desultory war, fought out 

 mainly in East Prussia, followed, 

 and then by the treaty of Thorn, 

 1466, Poland obtained districts that 

 brought her northern border to the 

 sea. Danzig, Thorn, Elbing, and 

 Marienburg became hers, and the 

 knights had to be content with 

 the land east of the Vistula. 



In the 16th century Poland at- 

 tained the summit of her greatness. 

 In 1526 Masovia, of which Warsaw 

 was the capital, became by ar- 

 rangement part of Poland ; it had 

 hitherto been an independent 



duchy. Later, Courland became a 

 vassal state, thus giving Poland 

 another line of seaboard, while Liv- 

 onia became a vassal of Lithuania. 



In 1569 the union of Lublin 

 effected a real union between 

 Poland and Lithuania, and this 

 date, only three years before the 

 extinction of the Jagellon family, 

 marks a turning-point. By the 

 union one parliament was estab- 

 blished for the whole kingdom, 

 which was then one of the largest 

 in Europe. It included not only 

 Poland proper and parts of Prus- 

 sia, but also Livonia, Galicia. with 

 Lemberg and great stretches of 

 Russia from Courland almost to 

 the Black Sea, while to the east its 

 boundary was well beyond the 

 line of the Dnieper. Within it were 

 Volhynia (Wolyn), Podolia, and 

 the various Russias White, Black, 

 and Little. 



Trouble with the Cossacks 



The collapse began with the 

 death of the childless Sigis- 

 mund III in 1572. No successor 

 was ready, and, after some time, 

 Henry of France, afterwards King 

 Henry III, was elected. He re- 

 mained in the country only for a 

 year, and then Stephen Bathory, 

 prince of Transylvania, was chosen. 

 A Swede, Sigismund, came next, 

 and both his reign and that of his 

 son, Ladislas IV, were periods of 

 success, although the nobles were 

 following the selfish course to 

 which the ruin of Poland is ascribed. 



Difficulties of another kind 

 arose through the action of the 

 Cossacks. Many of these were 

 subjects of Poland, and their 

 business was to guard the frontiers 

 of the kingdom. Their raids led 

 to trouble with Turkey ; religious 

 questions were involved, for it was 

 the age of the Reformation ; and 

 in 1638 the Polish diet deprived 

 them of their old and cherished 

 privileges. Just before this there 

 had been two risings on the part of 

 the Cossacks, and in 1 648, the year 

 of Sigismund s death, there was a 

 more serious one, terrible in its 

 horror and fury. The new king, 

 John Casimir, could do little to 

 check this, and seeing their oppor- 

 tunity, his land was invaded first 

 by the tsar, and secondly by 

 Charles X of Sweden. 



Both wars were waged at the 

 same time, and the danger roused 

 the Poles to something like unity. 

 Sweden's easy conquests were not 

 retained, except that by the treaty 

 of 1660 Poland obtained peace at 

 the price of the cession of Livonia. 

 In 1 667 the Russian war was ended 

 and Poland ceded some of the 

 eastern parts of the kingdom. In 

 1674 John Sobieski was chosen 

 kins, and although he won glory 



